Excerpt from Europe Has Fallen.

Summary: In 1879 Europe will change forever. Something is rising in the east and it will consume everything in its path. Captain Charles Hayward could be our last hope.

The Lancer

Rain was
falling, not hard, just consistently, making the road muddy and waterlogged.
Trees soaked up water and ferns gave off almost a sweet smell as the water
touched their stems.

Standing to
the side of the road was a small boy. He was sobbing uncontrollably. Even a
snorting sound behind him failed to break his lonely stance.

A white horse
pulled up alongside him. The boy’s soft brown hair was wet through as the rain
mixed with tears rolling down his face. He was not scared when this towering figure
blacked out the light around him. The sharp blue uniform with a white strap
across the chest and white helmet stood out. The boy just pointed down the road
to an overturned cart.

The lancer
leaned down and collected the young lad in one quick swoop. He gripped him
tight, as they embraced each other. He then rode over to a red horse chestnut
tree by the side of the road and placed the young boy on a fork in the trunk.

“Climb the
tree, Jack.”

“Yes, Father.”

The lancer
turned to face the overturned cart. His horse reared a little as its senses
picked up danger and his hand tightened on his lance. Slowly he urged the horse
on, the rain still falling slowly, giving a rise to a damp smell. The cart had
been violently hit and knocked over. The driver of the cart had been ripped in
half and all that was left were his legs, still caught up in the seat.

Then the first
image came into sight; a group of flesh-eaters were feeding over a small girl’s
body. Her legs were on show, and her white dress was now another colour. The
strands of blonde hair that remained were scattered around the feeding group.

There was a
razor-tooth sitting close to a tree. Its huge frame pawed at several dead
bodies, guarding its food with intense ferocity.

Further up a
small bank was a large man dressed in black priest clothes. He was pressed on
top of a badly injured woman. She was still trying to push him off, although
her life was slipping away from her. The man was kissing her and touching her
defenceless body.

None of them
had seen the lancer. He stopped for a second and a tear ran down his cheek.
This was to be his last for now as rage started to engulf his body. He took out
his knife and cut his arm. This renewed his concentration. With that, he
lowered his lance and began a full charge at the razor-tooth. It was too busy
eating to notice the lancer coming at it with full speed. When its eyes caught
the glimmer of light reflecting off the metal spear it was too late. With
deadly precision, the lance was thrust into the animal rupturing organs and
piercing its heart. The beast gave out an almighty screech as it keeled to one
side. Breathing heavily it tried to roll over, but the wound was fatal. The
lancer leaned forward as the creature drew its last breath, making sure the
animal saw his eyes as he took his sword and cut the beast’s throat.

This commotion
had stirred the flesh-eaters. Two of them started to move from the girl and
make their way over to the lancer. He withdrew his lance and sheathed his
sword. Dismounting from his horse, which stood by the dead razor-tooth, he
started walking towards them. The first flesh-eater quickened its step. It
could not run, but sensed fresh meat. The blow that came down on its head sent
it tumbling to the ground. The lance was then jabbed through its skull.

The other
flesh-eater kept on coming. The three behind him had also left the body and
were now moving at speed towards their foe. The lancer was controlling his
anger well and kept a cool head as he struck the lance into the left knee cap
of the flesh-eater nearest to him.

He then
brought the pole round and knocked it down. The creature tried to stand but was
instantly knocked down with a kick to the head and was then decapitated with a
rough cutting action from his knife.

The other
three flesh-eaters were now in range. With his lance he struck one in the head,
bursting the spear through its face, then, quickly withdrawing it, he brought
the pole around and knocked the legs of the other two away. Whilst they
struggled to get up he finished them off, bringing the lance up and down on
both of them, paying meticulous attention to their heads.

He turned
around to see that the priest had risen from the woman he was attacking – the
Lancer’s wife. He was a large, muscular man with a strap across his chest and a
sword attached to his belt. He had a fresh scratch down the side of his face.
His eyes fixed on the lancer, he began to clap and gesticulate as if he was
enjoying the performance. The lancer stared motionlessly back.

The priest
wiped his mouth and glanced over at the dying woman. His eyes then focused on
the lancer again. It was then that a shred of fear crept over him. He would not
just be fighting a soldier; he was now fighting the husband of the dying woman
and the father of the dead child.

Sensing moment
he drew his sword, picked up an axe from the ground and came at the lancer. He
moved quickly for a man of his size and used the bank he was on to gain speed
to plummet down on his victim. The lancer stood still and waited. Three hundred
yards, two hundred yards, one hundred yards. The priest let out a war cry as he
prepared to slash the soldier in front of him. To his amazement the lancer
lowered his lance. The priest was closing in and did not really know what to
think. He wanted to make this a quick kill and return to his unit.

The lancer
calculated the distance and let the pole hit the ground. He then swept his
right hand to his side and drew his revolver. He was fast and took aim within a
fraction of a second of the gun being drawn. His finger squeezed the trigger
and the round burst out of the chamber and nestled into the charging man’s
stomach.

The priest
kept on running for a moment or two before falling to the ground. He dropped
his axe and sword and clutched both hands to his stomach. Pain was spread
across his face. The light around him went dark and he looked up with desperation
at his executioner.

The lancer
took off his white gloves and tucked them into his belt. He then knelt down to
maintain eye contact with the priest.

“You will pay
for your sins here today.”

The priest
tried to shake his head.

“Show me
mercy, I beg you.”

No sooner had
he let those words slip out than he received a kick in the stomach. Then he
felt a sharp pain in his left, then right shin. The lancer made sure he could
not walk again by piercing flesh and bone with his sword. He then grabbed the
man by the hair and dragged him over to a large rock. His head was placed on
the stone. The priest tried to move but the pain stopped his body from
shifting.

The lancer
went over and picked up the priest’s axe. He slammed the butt of the axe into
the priest’s head, not killing him, but leaving him stunned. Whilst he took a
moment to come round, the lancer used the axe in quick succession to take off
both the man’s arms.

He looked at
the lancer. His eyes were full of desperation and pain. With one fell swoop,
the lancer took his head off. He stood there for a moment or two afterwards,
breathing heavily.

He then turned
and ran over to his dying wife and held her in his arms. She was fatally
wounded and struggled to talk. Tears ran down her cheeks as she looked into her
husband’s eyes.

“Look after
the children; look after them, my love.”

Her voice was
weak as he pressed his face next to hers. He would never tell her that there
was only Jack left. She took a deep breath in and passed away.

Shock hit him. He held his wife and cried and
for the next few minutes he was lost as he gripped her body tightly. The pain
was too much.

He had to
refocus. He knew Jack was still waiting up a tree. He carefully laid down his
wife and fetched his horse. He then went and retrieved his son and placed him
by the cart. Quickly moving the dead priest’s legs, he told Jack not to look
over at the creatures. Jack knew his sister was dead, but did not know his
mother had passed away as well.

In the cart
the lancer found a small shovel and began to dig a shallow grave. Holding back
the screams within himself he carried his daughter to the hole and gently
placed her down. Then he fetched his wife and placed her alongside.

He called Jack
over to him. The lad could hardly walk and fell to his knees on seeing his
mother’s face. The shock of losing his sister and mother was almost too much.
The lancer wanted him to say his goodbyes the best he could before he buried
them. The lad lay on the ground shaking as his father bent down and hugged him.

“Jack, we do
not have much time, my beautiful boy.”

He picked his
son up and held him tight. Both of them began to cry. It helped to release
pressure. Five minutes passed and Jack whispered that he wanted to kiss his
mother one last time. He knelt down beside her and kissed her on the forehead.
He took his sister’s hand and also kissed it. He then went and stood by a tree
and told his father to do what he had to do.

The lancer
buried them and made a makeshift cross. He went over to Jack and hugged him
again.

They collected
the horse and saddled up, then with a small kick to its side started off down
the road, leaving the carnage behind them.

Write a Review
Did you enjoy my story? Please let me know what you think by leaving a review! Thanks,
andysbooks

Marivic Fiel:
I really really liked it, how the story flows and wow great the twist was when the guy found about you know (I don't want to spoil.. ) Its great really worth the time, I'm really happy and can't wait to find out what's next :)I enjoyed it :)Thank you for writing this.For me the book is special be...

alice:
In the beginning I was disgusted by the idea of a "breeder" and all that crap, more specifically how who finds her first, "owns" her. But I quickly started to realize that the plot-line could be amazing if written by the right author and that's exactly what happened here. I'm usually not a fan of...

Brittani Nicole Case:
Your summary of the story is what got me to read it. You have a way with words and with humor. I didn't really see the strong-willed version of Cordelia. When I think of a strong-willed female character the very first one to pop in my head is Buffy Sommers (There is no stronger-willed female than...

dshanie76:
it was awesome but u left me in suspense. so unfair. It had minor grammatical error but the plot was great. the personality of the characters where very descriptive that allowed me to create a picture for every scenario easily. you have the potential to be a wonderful writer. But i think you shou...

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